To Prevent Open Minds


Book Description

Kendra doesn’t want her best friend to make the same mistake she did. So she drags her best friend to meet Chronos and learn about the future. That should fix the problem, right? It’s not like the two of them have ever disagreed on anything before. Or like a villainous fashion designer is planning to make everything worse.




How to Keep an Open Mind


Book Description

How ancient skepticism can help you attain tranquility by learning to suspend judgment Along with Stoicism and Epicureanism, Skepticism is one of the three major schools of ancient Greek philosophy that claim to offer a way of living as well as thinking. How to Keep an Open Mind provides an unmatched introduction to skepticism by presenting a fresh, modern translation of key passages from the writings of Sextus Empiricus, the only Greek skeptic whose works have survived. While content in daily life to go along with things as they appear to be, Sextus advocated—and provided a set of techniques to achieve—a radical suspension of judgment about the way things really are, believing that such nonjudging can be useful for challenging the unfounded dogmatism of others and may help one achieve a state of calm and tranquility. In an introduction, Richard Bett makes the case that the most important lesson we can draw from Sextus’s brand of skepticism today may be an ability to see what can be said on the other side of any issue, leading to a greater open-mindedness. Complete with the original Greek on facing pages, How to Keep an Open Mind offers a compelling antidote to the closed-minded dogmatism of today’s polarized world.




Opening Minds


Book Description

We live in an age where unethical persuasion is applied every day, to subvert reasoning through direct appeals to one's emotions. Manipulation, undue influence and brainwashing, or whatever one chooses to call it, challenges the very notion of human rights. This book shows how the mind is cajoled into submitting to unethical, external influence.




The Limitations of the Open Mind


Book Description

When should you engage with difficult arguments against your cherished controversial beliefs? The primary conclusion of this book is that your obligations to engage with counterarguments are more limited than is often thought. In some standard situations, you shouldn't engage with difficult counterarguments and, if you do, you shouldn't engage with them open-mindedly. This conclusion runs counter to aspects of the Millian political tradition and political liberalism, as well as what people working in informal logic tend to say about argumentation. Not all misleading arguments wear their flaws on their sleeve. Each step of a misleading argument might seem compelling and you might not be able to figure out what's wrong with it. Still, even if you can't figure out what's wrong with an argument, you can know that it's misleading. One way to know that an argument is misleading is, counterintuitively, to lack expertise in the methods and evidence-types employed by the argument. When you know that a counterargument is misleading, you shouldn't engage with it open-mindedly and sometimes shouldn't engage with it at all. You shouldn't engage open-mindedly because you shouldn't be willing to reduce your confidence in response to arguments you know are misleading. And you sometimes shouldn't engage closed-mindedly, because to do so can be manipulative or ineffective. In making this case, Jeremy Fantl discusses echo chambers and group polarization, the importance in academic writing of a sympathetic case for the opposition, the epistemology of disagreement, the account of open-mindedness, and invitations to problematic academic speakers.




Open Minds to Equality


Book Description

Educators are becoming increasingly concerned with more areas of discrimination and inequality that affects students. For example, as more immigrant students enter schools, understandings and skills for educating about language discrimination are needed. Similarly, as educators become more aware of the negative consequences of homophobic behavior on students, knowledge and approaches for dealing with homophobia in schools are called for. Open Minds to Equality deals with the expanding range of equity concerns. Membership in the largest association (National Association for Multicultural Educators) is growing by leaps and bounds. State-level associations are being started in these subjects all across the country. While focusing on discrimination based on race, gender, class, and age, the second edition also addresses bias based on religion, mental and physical ability, sexual orientation, and language. It provides educators an inclusive framework for thinking about diversity and responding practically to all these forms of difference in their classrooms. Activities in the book address both content and process. The content broadens the readersO awareness of the causes of inequality, particularly how differences are used to justify inequality. It encourages questions and the exploration of many sources of information and various points of view. The process is experiential, participatory, cooperative, and democratic. This book is extremely helpful for teachers, facilitators, staff development programs, and curriculum specialists. It is also appropriate for professionals in educational settings outside of schools such as camps, scouts, church groups, and youth agencies (all of which bought the first edition of this book). A Longwood Professional Book.




Wise Mind, Open Mind


Book Description

Though it's nearly impossible to imagine, times of personal crisis and upheaval are opportunities for self-reinvention and heightened artistic expression. Whether you are healing from a severed relationship, experiencing a job loss, or coping with another traumatic life transition, you can renew your strength and find new passion and purpose after things fall apart. Wise Mind, Open Mind offers a powerful three-step mindfulness approach to help you navigate times of unwanted change, rediscover your inner well of creativity, and move forward with passion and purpose. This book combines techniques drawn from contemporary mind-body approaches, Buddhist psychology, mindfulness, creative thinking, and positive psychology to show you how to tap into your gifts and create a practical plan for personal transformation that will help you move through the challenges you face. You'll learn to overcome the five common hindrances that may be keeping you from true fulfillment and happiness. Finally, you'll be able to embrace your circumstances, utilizing them to create a renewed personal vision and welcome new possibilities and greater creativity into your life.




Opening Hearts by Opening Minds


Book Description

This book is for Christian readers of fiction who might experience difficulty trying to make an informed choice beyond what is being published by evangelical presses. Marketed to a specific target audience, evangelical fiction oftentimes leaves a reader with a strong emotional response but lacks the literary depth or the breadth of subject that could inspire life-changing spiritual growth. With this premise at the heart of her book, Connie Wineland includes her own story of conversion to Christianity by way of reading fiction. During her late twenties and early thirties, particularly while in graduate school, Wineland became immersed in literary and rhetorical studies while also practicing an Eastern form of religion as well as Native American spirituality. However, despite all her training in literary theory, her readings in Romantic, Victorian, modern, and postmodern literature (which she explains), as well as her personal interest in mythology and world religions, kept her questioning the existence of God and the possible nature of God. Then, as a relatively new convert to Christianity, she faced several challenges at a small Christian college where she taught literature and writing courses. Eventually wanting to reach beyond the academic community, Wineland began a local Christian readers' group, which she ran for four years. She includes in this book resources and materials such as sample syllabi and study-guide questions, useful Web addresses, and plenty of how-to information for starting and running your own book club. Also included is an extensive list of annotated titles of recommended reading to get anyone started!




How to be Critically Open-Minded: A Psychological and Historical Analysis


Book Description

In a lively and subversive analysis, psychologist John Lambie explains how to see another person's point of view while remaining critical – in other words how to be 'critically open-minded'. Using entertaining examples from history and psychology, Lambie explores the implications of critical open-mindedness for scientific and moral progress.




A Mind So Rare


Book Description

Donald (psychology, Queen's University, Canada) challenges the prevailing view that seeks to explain away human consciousness and presents a theory on the origins of the modern mind. He describes the cultural and neuronal forces that power human modes of awareness, and proposes that the human mind is a hybrid product of the interweaving of the brain with an invisible symbolic web of culture to form a "distributed" cognitive network. Using evidence from brain and behavioral studies of humans and animals, he explains how an expansion of consciousness transcends the limitations of the mammalian mind, and elaborates the foundations of self-evaluation and self-reflection. c. Book News Inc.




Open Mind, Open Heart 20th Anniversary Edition


Book Description

Thomas Keating was a Cistercian monk who founded the worldwide 'Contemplative Outreach', teaching people the art of meditation. This is the 20th anniversary edition of Continuum's best-selling spiritual classic, which has sold over half a million in the English language and has appeared in 10 foreign-language editions. This book is designed to initiate the reader into a deep, living relationship with God. Written by an acknowledged spiritual master, the book moves beyond "discursive meditation and particular acts to the intuitive level of contemplation." Keating gives an overview of the history of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition, and step-by-step guidance in the method of centering prayer. Special attention is paid to the role of the Sacred Word, Christian growth and transformation, and active prayer. The book ends with an explicit treatment of the contemplative dimension of the gospel. Open Mind, Open Heart will take readers into a world where God can do anything, into a realm of the greatest adventure – “Where one is open to the Infinite and hence to infinite possibilities." This is the 20th anniversary edition of Continuum's bestselling spiritual classic, which has sold over half a million in the English language and has appeared in 10 foreign-language editions (Croatian, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesia, Italian, Korean, Polish, and Portuguese). The new edition consists of a substantial new preface, an expanded glossary, some changes in terminology, and a reordering of several chapters.